this post was submitted on 09 Feb 2024
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Shuji Nakamura was a researcher at Nichia who was determined to create the first blue LED, which had eluded scientists for decades. Through innovative crystal growth techniques and materials discoveries, he succeeded in developing bright blue and white LEDs in the early 1990s. This breakthrough enabled LEDs to be used for full-spectrum lighting. Nichia's fortunes grew enormously as a result, though Nakamura was not properly compensated for his invention. Today, LEDs powered by Nakamura's blue LED technology are ubiquitous and have brought enormous energy savings worldwide.
Something interesting I found was that Nakamura persisted in his research for blue LEDs against the wishes of his company management, who saw it as a waste of resources. His stubbornness and belief in his work paid off by solving a problem that had stumped the electronics industry for 30 years.
He really got screwed. They didn't want him even working on blue LEDs and then when he was right and actually made one they gave him nothing and made hundreds of millions of dollars. Then sued him when he left to work for another company for "leaking company secrets" which was really all his work. He counter sued and the courts awarded him like 189 million, then the company counter sued back and he got 8 million which just covered his legal fees.
Um... if someone pays you to do a thing, then they own it. Imagine if you paid me a hundred thousand dollars to build a house and then it's my house to live in. Doesn't make any sense at all.
I'm not defending the company, but the law is pretty clear on this. If you want to own your own work, then start your own company.
I think their comment is more a critique of wage labour than a misunderstanding of it.
The world is full of tech companies that pay stock options/etc, if that's how you want to be paid then you can do that.
Personally I have no interest in that at all and have always turned it down. If I'm going to own shares in a company, then I want voting rights. Nothing worse than watching investment be run by someone you disagree with... actually there is something worse. A company where every single employee has control/voting rights. That would be a complete disaster.
Isn't that called a co-op? I hear those tend to do well.
Yeah they go really well. Like you probably use some and don’t realize it. One of my local gas station chains is one
It sucks that they're down voting you for being correct in your top comment, though I think I agree with the down votes for your characterisation of worker controlled enterprises as "a complete disaster". They actually work well
I would say that the thing that makes me want to downvote that comment the most is the part where you get stocks/options "if that's what you want".
It's not like every company would offer you that and even if they do promise they might not do that
Our team has joined a big company and we were promised stocks but sure enough they said "we usually don't do that so we don't have a contract for such a case". Our manager almost made them hold their word a year after we joined, then he got fired and sure enough we got nothing. Well, at least the other conditions were not too bad and then the team split and everyone went their own way ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Oh no, not co-ops! They give the people, who actually create the products and know how they work, voting rights on the companies direction? So dumb. Everyone knows its best to have a business person, whose sole focus is the stock market and shareholders, controlling the direction of every company.
/s in case it wasn't glaringly obvious.